


A Curious Encounter

by SilverMonster



Category: Original Work
Genre: Anthropomorphic, First Meetings, Gen, Werewolf, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24611521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMonster/pseuds/SilverMonster
Summary: Amorina's fellow townsfolk have warned her many times to not go into the woods and advised her to keep living in the village of Pacem, but the woods is the only place she truly feels at home. Despite knowing of the tragedy that struck her village many years ago, she chooses to continue to move into a little cottage in the woods, not afraid of the potential dangers that may lurk amongst the trees.One day when she's reflecting by herself in a meadow, she suddenly finds herself standing face to face with an odd stranger, and must try to figure out for herself if she can really trust the wildings that live within the Pacem Woods.
Relationships: Amorina and Noah, Noah and Amorina
Kudos: 1





	A Curious Encounter

The dandelion seeds were floating peacefully in the air as the deer hybrid Amorina sat in the grass picking flowers. The sun shone its light down upon the small meadow, caressing her white fur-coated skin with its warmth. As she was putting the flowers into her braided basket, she hummed a little melody to herself, a tune often sung by the people from her village during springtime. It was an old song about a world in bloom, about colors, smells, and life returning to the people after the withering of what was before - what that meant exactly, Amorina wasn’t entirely sure as no one actually knew the song’s origin, but one could assume it was referring to winter.

Although spring was her favorite season, Amorina had always loved every aspect of nature - even the colder and less colorful ones. Ever since she was a small child, she had loved to play in the woods with the other children from her village, but even if she didn’t have anyone to play with, she didn’t mind venturing out to explore it on her own. 

The Pacem Woods, which abutted with her village, were enormous. She had wandered through much of the woodland throughout the years, but knew she hadn’t even seen half of it, despite the many new discoveries she had made; she made friends with two hybrids she hadn’t seen before, a centaur and a cervitaur from two different wild herds of hybrids. There was still so much to uncover in these woods, and although Amorina didn’t necessarily feel a need to discover all of its secrets, she had always felt it calling to her in some strange way. She wanted to be closer to it, to be able to just step outside and immediately feel all of the sensations of the woods surround her; hear the rustling of the branches and leaves above her, see them casting its shadows down upon the green grass below her hooves, feel the breeze gently tugging her pink locks, smell the numerous colorful flowers that grew all over the area during spring and taste the cold little snowflakes that landed on her tongue during winter. 

She knew her people used to venture out into the woods more often when she was a child, but that had changed once the rumors of werewolves had reached her village.

Amorina had never seen a werewolf herself, but her parents and the rest of the older generation in the village had told her of when the werewolves were last seen in the Pacem Woods about 25 years ago. According to the stories she had been told, the werewolves were vicious beasts, not quite human, but not quite hybrid either. In some strange way they were both - something Amorina had never heard of. 25 years ago, the werewolves had terrorized the woods, going on a murderous rampage, killing hunters that went into the woods, and even tore villagers limb by limb during the night when the lights had been put out and everyone was asleep. They were aggressive monsters, yet hard to spot while they were hunting. Villagers barely left their homes and it was hard to acquire food and supplies, as the number of hunters were already at a low due to the small size of the village, the animals on the farms were being eaten and the farmers were fearing for their lives when they went out to sow their crops, even during daytime.

But then suddenly the werewolves just stopped coming. No one understood why and therefore could not find an explanation either. The amount of murders and sightings didn’t even slowly fade, it all just ended abruptly, with no one being able to comprehend a reason as to why and how this could happen.

That is of course except for the few believers. They claimed that this was the work of The Protector, a mysterious figure who supposedly should know the ancient arts of the arcane powers, of magic. Amorina had heard stories of this person throughout her entire life from the very few believers that resided in her village, but she wasn’t sure what to make of it. She was open to the idea of magic despite the majority of her village denying its existence, but she had yet to be presented with solid proof.

Magic or not, everyone was relieved to finally be able to leave their homes to go back to living their normal peaceful lives, albeit many were still very guarded in the beginning, but the werewolves had stayed absent from the Pacem Woods ever since.

Amorina didn’t blame her older fellow villagers for feeling uneasy by the rumors of werewolves returning to the woods. She could never even begin to imagine the traumatizing sights and experiences some of them had had to endure, and therefore it wasn’t that strange her parents weren’t completely supportive of her decision to move into the little cottage located beyond the border between the village and the woods. She was their only daughter and of course they didn’t want to risk her being in danger - but Amorina knew the woods better than anyone else in the village, perhaps except for the hunters. 

She lifted her head to look at her surroundings once more as she held the flower in her hand up to her nose, smelling its sweet aroma. The crown of the tree she was sitting in front of was calm and quiet, with only the smallest breeze flowing through its leaves. As she closed her eyes to feel the warmth of the sun’s light, she heard a small rustle come from above her. Perhaps a squirrel or a bird? She opened her eyes when she felt something tickle the back of her hand and looked down to see a dandelion seed had landed on the back of her pink hand.

She wasn’t frightened by the woods. If the rumors proved to be true, she would of course move back to her old home in town, but this is something she had wanted for a long time. The flowers that grew in the woods were many, and she had yet to see them all. She dreamt of opening her own flower shop one day.

Her basket was now filled with a good amount of flowers in various colors. She probably had plenty to decorate her home with for now.

As she brushed grass off her skirt, she suddenly caught something moving in the corner of her eye and she quickly turned her head to look at it, only to see a small white butterfly. It had a small black dot on each wing. She smiled as she watched it flutter past her. Then she picked up her basket of flowers and got up from her knees to turn around so she could walk back home.

Only to stare directly into another pair of eyes only inches away from her face.

She didn’t even scream as she fell backwards, but only let out a surprised “Ooh!”, and then landed flat on her tail, dropping her basket onto the ground. 

At the same time as she let out her sound of surprise, she heard an “A-Ah!” come from the stranger and then a thud.

Looking up to see who had startled her, she saw a young cat hybrid man. He seemed to hesitate as he observed her sitting there on the ground in front of him, his tail swinging behind him. He then slowly took a few steps closer and extended one of his hands towards her. 

“Apologies…”, he said as he looked at her with what looked to be genuine concern. She stared at him for a moment, blinking as she tried to process what just happened, then shook her head to collect herself, and then looked at his hand. She cleared her throat before taking it and letting him help her back on her hooves. 

“Oh dear,”, she said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. I was caught in my own thoughts.” She brushed the grass and dirt off the back of her skirt.

He looked a little confused. “Ah…” 

She was finally able to get a better look of him. He was taller than her, about half a head, and his hair reached a little below his jawline, a brownish auburn color with a few gray stripes matching the color of the fur on his gray striped cat ears and tail. The only hair covering his face was his beard, otherwise his skin was bare unlike hers, however most of his features were still more cat-like than human-like, such as his cat nose and his whiskers. 

“You like flowers?”, he asked as his hand reached for her bangs. His nails were long and sharp. Amorina looked at his hand and instinctively backed away, not wanting this strange man to touch her. 

“Flowers?” She looked down at her basket. “Uhm… Yes.” She squatted down to collect the flowers in her basket once more and then picked them back up. “I come to the forest to pick flowers quite a lot.”, she added as she rose back up, looking back at him. “I have never seen you here before, though.”

She paused. Despite his strange demeanor, she didn’t feel as if this man had any ill intentions. He was dressed in ragged clothing, a red coat and orange pants with poorly sewn in patches of fabric. The only wild hybrids she knew did not wear clothing, but she knew he didn’t come from her village, and the nearest villages took a while to reach on horseback. Maybe he needed help? Either way, she felt that the best approach was to be friendly.

“Forgive my manners, my name is Amorina.”, she said with a smile and extended her hand for a handshake.

His ears perked up as his tail slowly swayed to one side. “Amorina, that’s a very good name.” He watched her with a pair of eyes of two different colors; his right eye a sky blue and the other a golden yellow. 

She felt her cheeks go warm as she waited for him to react and shake her hand. A few awkward seconds passed before he smiled and copied her action… except he just held his hand in front of hers, not doing anything. She looked at his hand, and then hesitantly took it and shook hands with him. “Thank you. And you are?”

“My name? I call myself Noah.”, he replied with a smile, showing off his feline fangs.

“It’s nice to meet you, Noah!” She pulled her hand back and stuck her arm under the handle of her basket. “Do you live in the woods?”

He nodded. “Among the trees is where I sleep. By the river is where I eat!”

She raised her eyebrows at his reply. Where had he gotten his clothes from then? “Oh? I didn’t expect that, you’re not really like other wild hybrids I’ve met.” She tapped her chin with her index finger. “So you don’t have a house?”

He slightly turned his head to look in between the trees. “Wild hybrids? A house?” She watched his tail lower itself down close to the ground. “Do you mean my den?”, he asked as he looked back at her.

“Well… If your den is your home, then yes.” She gave him a little smile.

“Then yes!”, he said as he returned her smile with great enthusiasm. “You’re alone?”

She raised her eyebrows once more. “In my home?”

He started looking around them, as if scouting the area. His movements definitely seemed more animal-like than hers, but at least he didn’t seem like he was a predator on the hunt. “No… Not a lot of people get close to the trees.”

“Oh, here? Yeah, I’m alone. People don’t really come to the woods anymore…”

Noah nodded. “Rightfully so. But I am no threat!” He held up his hands.

“You don’t really seem like one either.”, she said as she let out a giggle. To her he appeared more confused than anything.

His cheeks went a little red. “You’re not afraid of the woods?”

“No… Or, I mean… A little maybe - but only because of the rumors of werewolves.” It was true. Although she generally wasn’t scared, the doubt sometimes did come creeping on her. She only recently moved into the woods, and with the recent warnings coming from her parents, she did sometimes doubt if she even made the right decision - but then she stepped out into the woods and felt its welcoming ambience, and she knew that this was her new home. “But otherwise, no, not really.”, she continued. “I have friends in the woods.”

A small noise of purring begun emanating from Noah. “There are many inhabitants of the forest, like the horse people!”

“Yes, the horse people!” Amorina replied in an excited manner. “I know one of them. He’s very sweet.”

His tail perked up as he heard her speaking. “Yes! You’re very sweet!”

Amorina, surprised by the sudden compliment, giggled with a hand in front of her mouth. “Why thank you, Noah. That’s also very sweet of you to say.”

He chuckled back at her. “You said I don’t seem like a threat… But why are you still here?”

She looked a little confused. “Why I’m still here?”

“Speaking to me?”, he said, copying her expression.

She shrugged. “Because you interrupted my flower picking?”

Noah let out a soft gasp. “Oh! I’m sorry!” He then quickly bent down and picked up a flower that was within his reach, and handed it to her. “Here!”

She looked at the flower. Never had she encountered such a strange man. “Thank you.”, she said as she took it. “You know, I was actually picking these flowers for my-”

Another voice suddenly rang out from behind her: “AMORIIIINAAAAA!”

Her deer-like ears shot backwards towards the sound and she turned her head to look, but already before she looked, she knew who it was. Her friend Freya, a brown wolf hybrid, came running into the meadow to meet Amorina.

“By the Protector, I’ve looked for you for hours!”, Freya exclaimed, slightly out of breath. Amorina knew she was exaggerating, but that was just Freya for you. “I’ve got the most insane thing to tell you! I think I saw a magician’s mark in the woods!”

“Really?”, Amorina asked, unsure of what to make of it.

“Yes! Do you wanna see?” Freya folded her hands and eagerly leaned closer to Amorina.

“I-I would love to, but uh, before we do that, Freya this is N-”

But as Amorina turned her head to look at Noah, she saw that there was no one there. 

“Uhm… Nevermind.”, she said as she looked back at Freya.

“Wonderful.” Freya said, seemingly not interested in whatever Amorina had interrupted herself in doing. “I need my books though, so we’ll have to go back to my house first.”

“Alright, well… You can go on ahead, I need to, uhm… Collect a few more flowers, it’ll only take a minute.”

Freya spoke as she backed away. “Okay fine, but hurry! I’ll meet you there!”, she said and then ran off.

Amorina watched as the wolf girl left. There really was no stopping Freya when it came to magic. She was already a bit of an outcast in her village due to her hybrid race. She wasn’t actually a werewolf, as werewolves are a mix of human and hybrid, while Freya was simply just a hybrid, but people still seemed to feel slightly uneasy around her - and not only that, but she also had quite the obsession with arcane nature, being a firm believer in the existence of magic and of The Protector of the Pacem Woods. Amorina didn’t mind though. Freya was a kind (if not a little odd) soul and good company with her enthusiastic and eager personality, and Amorina was more than happy to listen to her theories. Amorina liked her, and it seemed as if Freya felt the same.

Amorina looked back to where Noah was previously standing. She didn’t even hear him leave. She looked around to try and spot him, but he was nowhere to be found. Freya must have spooked him off. 

She wasn’t really sure what to make of him. He was quite an interesting creature to say the least. He looked like a man of civilization (at least somewhat), but lived and acted like a man of the wild, which was kind of indicated by his lack of understanding what a handshake was and his strange way of his speaking.

However, at the same time she couldn’t help but feel amused by this brief encounter with this Noah. Perhaps she could make friends with him.

She looked down to inspect the little flower he gave her. Its petals were pink and rounded, almost heart shaped, and in the middle was a white pattern which looked like a little star around its yellow center. She smiled a little as she put the flower in her basket, and then turned to leave in the same direction as Freya took off. 

Perhaps she’d see Noah again at some point. She kind of hoped she would.


End file.
